The present invention relates to radio communication devices.
In a radio transmitter, a power amplifier is included to amplify the radio frequency signal to be transmitted via an antenna. The power amplifier is controlled through a variety of mechanisms to output radio frequency energy at a desired power level. Generally, the maximum transmit power at the antenna is limited by regulatory requirements in the band of operation.
Typically, the power amplifier dominates the power consumption in the radio transmitter. Power amplifier efficiency is the ratio of the output power of the power amplifier to the power it consumes, PAeff=Pout/Pcons.
The gain of the power amplifier is the ratio of the output power to the input power, PAgain=PAout/PAin. The output power can be controlled by changing the input power level. For a desired maximum output power, the efficiency of the power amplifier can be controlled by adjusting the bias current of the power amplifier. The power consumption of the power amplifier is a function of the DC current which is determined by the power amplifier bias current and the output power:Pcons=PAdc+f(Pout).
High power amplifier efficiency introduces non-linearities that affect the integrity of the transmit signal. Therefore, the operating point of the power amplifier is selected by trading efficiency versus linearity.
Transmit beamforming has been proposed as a way to improve data rate and range of signals transmitted to another device. Multiple transmit antennas are used at the transmitter of one device when transmitting signals to another device, whereby weighted versions of the baseband signal are upconverted and transmitted by corresponding ones of a plurality of antennas. The transmit antenna weights are computed by maximizing a cost function (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver of the other device). One example and application of transmit beamforming is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/174,728, filed Jun. 19, 2002 and entitled “System and Method for Antenna Diversity Using Joint Maximal Ratio Combining,” the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
According to these techniques each transmitter requires a power amplifier to amplify the signal at the input to the antenna to a desired level. For N antennas, the total power consumption could reach N times the power consumption of a single antenna system. Any given power amplifier may be required to transmit at a level up to a maximum power level. What is needed is a procedure and system to optimize the DC power consumption of the power amplifiers when transmitting from multiple antennas.